It Ends With Us

image for It Ends With Us

Short takes

Not suitable under 16; parental guidance to 16 (violence, themes, sexual references, language)

Age
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
classification logo

This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for It Ends With Us
  • a review of It Ends With Us completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 13 August 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 16 Not suitable due to violence, themes, sexual references, scary scenes and language.
Children aged 16 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes, sexual references and language.
Children aged 17 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: It Ends With Us
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Family violence and references to sexual violence
Length: 130 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) can think of nothing nice to share about her father at his funeral. She loved him despite the fact that he spent her lifetime abusing her mother. Sitting on a rooftop, attempting to process his loss she meets handsome neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) and sparks immediately fly. In the weeks that follow, Lily is busy setting up her lifelong dream of opening a florist shop and has all but forgotten Ryle Kincaid. When she hires Alyssa (Jenny Slate), a lively shop assistant, to help her out she has no idea that Ryle is Alyssa’s brother and that their paths will soon intertwine. Ryle is the stores first customer and he and Lily pick up where they left off. Things seem perfect but then, in just a few seconds, everything changes. Ryle hits Lily, knocking her to the ground, but he claims it was an accident and indeed it looks that way, as he has injured himself as well. However, small things continue to happen and Lily shrugs them away, believing he is sorry, believing it is her fault, believing it will never happen again. When they run into Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar) at the restaurant he runs, Lily is surprised to see her first love again and Ryle is unprepared for the fury that rises within him. When a dangerous situation escalates, Lily runs straight to Atlas. He lends a helping hand, offers her his heart and gives her the space to make one of the most difficult decisions of her life.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Domestic violence; Homelessness; Family breakdown; Sexual violence and manipulation.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Ryle tells Lily about how, at the hospital, he watched a little boy die after a gun went off by accident.
  • Atlas tells Lily that his mother likes dating guys who beat her.
  • A teenage Lily watches her parents fight as her dad attacks her mum.
  • Ryle knocks Lily down while he is getting something out of the oven. He falls backwards onto some broken glass and cuts his hand. Her eye is bruised and swollen and his hand is shown wrapped and bandaged.
  • Atlas threatens Ryle, telling him that if he ever touches Lily again he will cut off his hand and shove it down his throat.
  • Atlas and Ryle shove, hit and push each other.
  • Lily tells Ryle that her dad used to hit her mum and that he nearly killed Atlas.
  • Atlas tells Lily that he went to an abandoned house to kill himself but that as soon as he saw Lily’s face he couldn’t do it. He tells her that she saved his life.
  • Alyssa tells Lily about the time Ryle and their older brother were playing in the house with a gun. Ryle was six and he didn’t know the gun was real until it went off. He shot and killed his brother and hasn’t been the same since.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Nothing further noted for this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • Nothing further noted for this age group.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Lily and Atlas are lying together in her bed, under the sheets, after they have had sex. Her father barges into the room and begins violently attacking and bashing Atlas, nearly beating him to death. Lily is screaming. Eventually an ambulance is called and Atlas is shown, barely conscious, covered in his own blood.
  • Ryle breaks a lamp and it looks like he hits Lily. Ryle’s anger is palpable and he seems out of control and scary. Lily goes after him as he tries to leave the apartment and as she tries to reach out to him it looks like she falls down the stairs. She wakes up back in their apartment with a cut to her head and bruising. She later remembers that he pushed her.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Ryle pins Lily down on a couch, lying on her with his body, while she begs him to stop. She has flashbacks of her father assaulting her mother in a similar fashion as she tells him how much she loves him and continues to beg him to stop. He bites at the tattoo on her collarbone, Lily is clearly terrified and it appears as though he is trying to rape her.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Lily watches the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
  • A subtle reference is made to a character on The Simpsons.
  • Characters repeatedly get Starbucks coffee and the logo on the takeaway cups is clearly displayed.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Reference is made to prostitution.
  • Lily shares that the first guy she had sex with was homeless.
  • Soon after meeting Lily, Ryle confesses that he wants to have sex with her.
  • When Ryle tells Alyssa and her husband that he and Lily shared their naked truths. Her husband begins substituting the word “talk” for “sex”, as in: “We talk 3-5 times a week.” and: “You want to talk right now?”
  • Alyssa advises Lily not to get involved with her brother, telling her that Ryle: “Runs through women like candy.”
  • Lily introduces Ryle to her mother, saying: “This is Ryle, who I now sleep with.”
  • Lily tells Ryle that she, “feels like she is in a porno.”
  • While they banter at breakfast, Ryle mentions Lily’s vagina.
  • Ryle scoffs at Lily for “wasting her virginity” on Atlas.
  • Lily’s mum tells her to, “make me a grand baby.”
  • Lily tells a doctor that she wasn’t raped. She is repeatedly asked if Ryle tried to rape her.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • After telling Lily that he wants to have sex with her, Ryle takes her hand, touching it in a sensual way as he explores her boundaries. He starts to slide the shirt off her shoulder but is interrupted by a phone call.
  • Ryle and Lily kiss passionately.
  • Lily wears a low-cut evening gown that also exposes part of her stomach.
  • Ryle takes Lily to his apartment where they begin to kiss passionately. Ryle kisses Lily’s stomach and then takes off his shirt. He takes off her dress leaving her standing in her bra and panties. They fall into bed, continuing to kiss, but Lily puts a stop to it and they spend the night together but do not have sex.
  • Lily and Ryle kiss while their hands explore each other’s bodies, his bare chest is shown and he moves his hands slowly up Lily’s thighs. He then lays on top of her and seductively runs his hands up her legs. Further events are alluded to but not depicted on screen.
  • Lily has flashbacks to when she and Atlas first had sex in her bedroom. They are under the sheets when Atlas mentions that he doesn’t have a condom. Lily produces the one she got from health class and confesses that she has never, “done this before.” Atlas admits he has only done it once.
  • Ryle and Lily kiss, their hands are everywhere and there is a close-up of Lily’s breasts.
  • Lily is shown in the shower, though nothing explicit is exposed.
  • Lily is shown giving birth. Her big belly is exposed and her bare legs are bent in the air.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Characters frequently drink alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine and champagne, in bars, restaurants, karaoke clubs, parties, a bowling alley and at home.
  • Ryle smokes what appears to be a joint.
  • A character suggests ordering cocktails at a restaurant and Lily says: “I need alcohol now.”
  • There is a reference to Ryle being drunk on baby milk.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Damn, God damn
  • Shit, holy shit
  • Dumb ass
  • A teenage Lily puts up her middle finger at a bunch of teens who are harassing Atlas.
  • Shut up!
  • Jackass!

In a nutshell

It Ends With Us is a powerful drama based on the best-selling book by Colleen Hoover. The film features compelling performances about an important topic and encourages women in similar circumstances to break the cycle of violence. Due to mature themes and content, the film is best suited to audiences over the age of 17.

The main messages from this movie are to get help if you find yourself in an abusive relationship; that women are stronger and more resilient than they might appear; and that every individual, no matter how impossible it may seem, has the power to end the cycle of violence.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Compassion
  • Forgiveness
  • Kindness
  • Courage
  • Resilience.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • The lasting effects of intergenerational violence.
  • Accepting or encouraging violent behaviour or violence against women, especially in boys.
  • Making excuses to yourself or others about the severity of certain behaviours.
  • The perils of current media personalities (i.e. Andrew Tate) who perpetuate dangerous and violent ideas that dehumanise women and girls and how these philosophies encourage the types of aggressive behaviours displayed in this film.